The present invention relates generally to filtering and ranking geographic object listings. More particularly, aspects of the invention relate to detecting spam or closed businesses in business listings.
Online services provide business listings to end users through various applications such as maps, search results or location-based services. These services receive inputs from business owners regarding the business's name, address, contact numbers, web site and geolocation data (latitude/longitude) and other information about the business. Such listings may include undesirable data such as spam (fake listings for businesses that do not exist) and closed businesses, which can be misleading to the user.
Street level images of geographic locations may be displayed through map services. These images typically comprise photographs of buildings, surrounding neighborhoods, and other features to allow a user to view a geographic location from a person's perspective as compared to a top-down satellite or aerial perspective. Images showing a particular geographic location, such as a museum, a gourmet shop, a restaurant or other point of interest may be displayed to the users within a mapping application to enhance the user's experience. The storefronts or business signs of some of the business listings may be visible from street level images of the neighborhood area.